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Demolition Derby

Over the past several weeks, Mr. Bobo and Mr. Beers have been involved in four (Count 'em, FOUR!) automobile mishaps. Believe it or not, none of these incidents and/or accidents were our fault. In an attempt to bore you, but not to death, I'll give you the most basic of details.

Mishap Number One happened in a restaurant parking lot. As Mr. Beers was driving out of the lot a gentleman backed into our hero. The fellows exchanged insurance information, and after some hemming and hawing on the part of the other driver, Progressive Insurance finally accepted liability and took care of a rental for Mr. Beers while his sedan was repaired. They provided him with a really nice Jeep and handled the whole process efficiently and expeditiously.

The second crash happened one Saturday morning while Mr. Beers and I were cruising through San Antonio in the W. D. DELI cargo van delivering catering orders. We were traveling through the intersection of San Pedro and Euclid when a minivan careened through a red light and gave us a good shove (and a little bit of damage) on through the intersection. After the driver apologized, we exchanged insurance information and within a week or two, USAA had a repair service come to the deli and they did the work in our parking lot. It was amazing. Efficient. Hardly any inconvenience. At all. Impressive.

A week or two later, while our Mr. Beers was on his way back to the deli from an early morning trip to Sam's Club, a young lady rear ended our hero as he was heading south on 281. According to Mr. Beers, after pulling over, the young woman driving the compact car jumped out of her vehicle and approached Mr. Beers. "She was barefoot, with a mixture of white powder [from the air bag] and blood on her face!" Our gallant Mr. Beers made sure that Leandra was okay, went to her car and got her shoes and put them on her feet, and talked to her dad on the phone for a little while. The next day Wayne Douglas called her to make sure she was alright. Still shaken up, and with a possible fracture to her nose, she told Mr. Beers how touched she was by his patience and chivalry, and she hoped that she would remember to be as kind in the future should she ever find herself in a similar situation. A few days later, Leandra's insurance company, Nationwide, assumed responsibility for the damage and had Mr. Beers's car repaired (again).

Our fourth and final smash-em-up happened in the W. D. DELI parking lot. During lunch one day, a sweet woman could see no other way out of our parking lot than to scrape along the back of my little SUV and take a little piece of the trim off as she went. She didn't want to do it, but it was the only way she could get out of there. At least that's what she said. She was upset with the whole situation. To her credit, she left a nice, apologetic note written on her business card on my vehicle and I was able to contact her later that same day. We exchanged insurance information and a few days later I heard from the nice folks at MetLife. After about four days at the collision center, my hoopty was returned - good as new - detailed, even.

So, in ranking our experiences with car insurance companies as to how they dealt with our individual incidents, I believe we'd have to rate USAA number one, with Progressive at number two. MetLife ranks number three, and Nationwide comes in dead last. Probably more than you cared to know about all those mishaps, but I completely left out the part about our hero's sassy attitude at being expected to drive a very bright metallic blue Hyundai Accent with a standard transmission and a slight cough. I almost neglected to share the part of the story in which Mr. Beers drove his E350 for a few days with only duct tape holding it together. But it's all good now. And we're more careful drivers as a result.